This book analyzes children's agency as interactional achievement in
formal and informal contexts of education and illuminates how agency can
be encouraged and supported in these educational contexts. Taking a
sociological approach, the author deals with children as social agents
rather than learners and considers structures of interaction which
encourage and support agency, rather than teaching. The book draws from
field research conducted over more than twenty years in a variety of
Italian and international contexts. This book is unique in providing a
theoretical reflection on the social structures that can support
children's agency, as well as a large amount of examples which show how
these structures and agency work.